Jaboya System

Society editor Dan Okoth examines how sex-for-fish business on some Nyanza beaches fuels the spread of HIV/Aids

Members of Ulusi Theatre Group perform a play at Uhanya Beach, Bondo District.

The breathtaking beauty of the orange sunset on Lake Victoria belies the silent suffering of fishmongers waiting for the catch at the shores of Uhanya beach, Bondo District.

Hundreds of women who live in makeshift houses compete fiercely for the catch, exposing themselves to HIV/Aids and endangering the men in the process. Strangely, some of the men are willing partners, having the time of their lives and dying while at it. It is a complex phenomenon with its roots in the sex-for-fish business, otherwise called the jaboya system.

‘Jaboya’ is a confusing term. Originally coined to mean ‘customer’, it took a sexual connotation when the times got hard and fish stocks dwindled at the lake that is home to species such as omena, ngege (tilapia), fulu and mbuta (Nile Perch).

Omena is a traditional species, the smallest and most common, while fulu is medium in size, bigger than omena and fast-disappearing. Mbuta, the biggest and meanest, is the cause of fulu’s woes, being the largest predator on all the other species. Its predatory nature is partly responsible for the jaboya system.

Judy Atieno*, a 50-year-old fishmonger at Uhanya Beach, explains how the jaboya system started.

"There’s a lot of poverty here on these beaches and this exposes the women to HIV/Aids. The jaboya system is commonly practised. First the fishermen come with their catch. But we are so many sellers that there’s not enough for all of us, so we’re forced to befriend the fishermen for them to give you fish."

A fishmonger approaches a fishing boat. 'There’s a lot of poverty here on these beaches and this exposes the women to HIV/Aids.'

It is not simple buyer-seller friendship but a sexual relationship. A fishermen tends to sell fish to the woman he sleeps with. The problem is that there is often more than one woman in such a web.

"I got into the fish business when I was young and I had to befriend some of them. Now that I’m grown up I can say no. In 1994, I went for a HIV test and I learnt I was positive. Since then I’ve lived positively," says Atieno.

"My husband died of Aids complications. I have children who have died as well — they never followed my instructions. The surviving children are HIV-positive so I have to help them live positively."

But Jonah Oburu*, a 37-year-old fisherman with two wives and six children, has a slightly different understanding of what jaboya means.

"Jaboya used to be the term for ‘customer’. Then it changed to mean women having sex with fishermen to get fish. The women come from places you don’t know, they are beautiful and the fishermen are attracted to them. So you end up sleeping with women who haven’t been tested and who don’t know their status. That’s how HIV/Aids is spread."

A tout prepares to load baskets of fish onto a Kitale-bound matatu in Bondo. Some fishmongers seek sexual relationships with matatu crew to get their fish transported fast.

Despite former President Daniel arap Moi declaring HIV/Aids a national disaster in 1999, the disease still claims thousands of Kenyans’ lives every year. Although the national prevalence rate is 8 per cent, places like Nyanza Province have a prevalence rate of 14 per cent.

The province has the highest HIV/Aids prevalence rate in the country and the beach communities have the highest rates in Nyanza, says Tony Daly, a health adviser with the Department for International Development. The British organisation funds Merlin, a non-governmental organisation that works at the beaches to create awareness on HIV/Aids.

"The population here have characteristic behaviours and sexual practices that make them vulnerable," Daly explains.

The province borders Uganda and Tanzania and shares the waters of Lake Victoria with the two countries. Its large number of beaches, some of the worst flashpoints of HIV/Aids, complicates the spread of the disease.

Emma Llewellyn, a technical coordinator with Merlin, explains the jaboya system and the HIV/Aids situation at the beach.

"The fishermen over-fish in breeding areas, that’s why the number of fish in the lake is going down. The breeding areas are shallower and closer to the banks. Because many people are HIV-positive, they are weak and do not have the energy to go far into the lake, so they tend to fish closer to the beach," says Emma.

"Of about 1,000 people tested, 520 women and 571 men, 53 per cent of the women and 27 per cent of the men were HIV-positive. It’s a difficult trend to reverse," she says.

Through a campaign by Merlin, the local community is grappling with the problem. The non-governmental organisation mobilised the community to form a theatre group, Ulusi. Using participatory educational theatre, the locals perform skits, dances and songs that revolve around HIV/Aids and discuss ways of dealing with it.

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Fishmongers sell omena at a market.

A group of five men sing popular folk songs on a megaphone in the dusty streets as they prepare to perform a play on HIV/Aids.

Children, some on their way home from school, join the adults following the singers to Ulusi Bus Stop. "Aneno wang’ mbuta korieny ei kado (I see Nile Perch eyes shining in the soup)," they sing along and follow the men to the bus stage, where they find another group of seven men setting up a tent to protect the performers from the hot sun. They all have T-shirts emblazoned with the word ‘Sare’, slang for 'free ride'. These men are matatu drivers and the rides their T-shirts refer to are not exactly free; you have to give sex in exchange.

Llewellyn explains why ‘Sare’ is dangerous. "One baseline study showed that about 30 per cent of matatu drivers had had a sexual relationship and 20 per cent of them had had sex with a schoolgirl in the preceding 12 months. The matatu crew thought that schoolgirls were ‘clean’ yet studies show that in this area, sex begins early."

In today’s performance, the story revolves around a young girl married to a matatu driver who returns home with HIV. (The audience laughs). After the performance, one of the performers clarifies the conclusion of the story.

The Ulusi Theatre Group has trained other local groups like the Uhanya Beach Group. They have also trained four groups in Bondo District and another in Suba District.

After each performance, Bertha Ouma, a Merlin behaviour change officer, usually distributes condoms to matatu touts loading fish from the lake, ready to be taken for sale.

Life in Bondo revolves around the fish industry. Like it happens at the beach, some fishmongers seek sexual relationships with matatu crew to get their fish transported to the market before it goes bad.

George Ong’injo, a mobilisation officer with Merlin, says what happens in the beaches near Bondo affects the locality. "We realised in a survey that some women come to sell fish for six months and you’re the star if you’re the first one to get her. The women don’t stay here, have joboya in different beaches, a string of partners, and this put them in a very vulnerable position.

"Our main message is behaviour change. We try to encourage faithfulness but it’s not widely practised here so we tune our messages to condom use. Since we began, the number of people taking HIV tests is on the rise. Mostly women are infected. Out of 20 people tested, seven of the HIV-positive are women and four are men. But women usually turn up at the VCT more often than men," he says.

The monthly performances by the Ulusi Theatre Group are highly entertaining and pull large crowds, children and adults alike. When timed to coincide with the return of fishermen in the evening, they attract as many as 300 participants. Afterwards, they ask questions and discuss issues like the dangers of the jaboya system.

"The Merlin campaign has brought a lot of change. People have changed their behaviour. Before there was stigma and people avoided going for Voluntary Counselling and Testing. Now people go," says Atieno.

Given the dwindling fish stocks that fuel competition among fishmongers, jaboya is likely to remain in demand for a while. However, with greater openness about HIV/Aids and performances like Ulusi’s, there is more openness about HIV/Aids and less women are exposing themselves to danger.